GRAHAM Bruce J. Graham, a nearly 30-year partner of Chicago architecture giant Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and a driver of high-rise designs that now define the Windy City’s skyline, died on March 6 in Hobe Sound, Fla., at age 84. The cause was complication of Alzheimer’s disease, say published reports. Graham, degreed in both architecture and civil engineering, led design of Chicago’s first two buildings to reach or exceed 100 stories: the John Hancock Center in 1970 and the Sears Tower in 1974. Graham, who joined SOM in 1951 and was partner from 1960 until he left in 1989, pushed
McKIM KUESEL Thomas R. Kuesel, a noted bridge and tunnel engineer and former partner at Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City, died on Feb. 17 in Connecticut after a long illness. He was 83. Kuesel, whose PB career spanned 43 years, contributed as project manager or engineer to more than 270 transportation structures and systems in the U.S. and abroad. He was named chairman of PB’s U.S. transportation design unit in 1984, retiring in 1990. Kuesel, who was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977, was co-editor of the Tunnel Engineering Handbook, a standard reference manual used worldwide, and
KUESEL Thomas R. Kuesel, a noted bridge and tunnel engineer and former partner at Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City, died on Feb. 17 in Connecticut after a long illness. He was 83. Kuesel, whose PB career spanned 43 years, contributed to design as project manager or engineer of more than 270 transportation structures and systems in the U.S. and abroad. As an engineering manager on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in California, he directed design of 20 miles of subways, 25 miles of aerial structures, two hard-rock tunnels and a 3.6-mile immersed-tube tunnel under San Francisco Bay. Kuesel earned
The body of PBSJ Corp. transportation engineer Lee Strickland has been recovered from the remains of Haiti�s Hotel Montana, which collapsed during the January 12, 2010 earthquake. “It is a strike at the heart,” says Kathe Jackson, PBSJ vice president of corporate communications. “We’re a pretty close-knit company, and Lee touched many of our lives.” Strickland, a group manager for the company’s engineering unit, traveled to Haiti to attend a two-day workshop on behalf of the company. STRICKLAND International search and rescue teams have worked at the site of the collapsed hotel since soon after the quake. Teams from the
DUNBAR Michael E. Dunbar, vice president of special projects at the Associated Builders and Contractors and a 22-year veteran of the open-shop contractors group, died on Jan. 31 at 63 after a long illness. He had a key role in ABC communications and operations and was a former Associated General Contractors staff member. “Mike loved being around construction contractors and admired their entrepreneurship,” says ABC CEO M. Kirk Pickerel.
SABBAGH Hassib Sabbagh, co-founder and chairman of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Group (CCG), one of the largest Middle East building contractors whose past projects include Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, died on Jan. 12 in Cleveland. He was 90. From a small firm founded in 1945 in Haifa, Israel, that built housing for Jewish veterans of the British army in Palestine, CCG became the 44th largest firm on ENR’s list of The Top 225 Global Contractors, with $5.46 billion in 2008 international revenue. More than two-thirds of that is in industrial and petrochemical markets. The firm relocated to Beirut in 1948 but
John B. O�Dowd, a vice president of New York City-based engineering firm STV Corp. and a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who commanded its New York district during the 9/11 terror attack in lower Manhattan, died Jan. 26 at age 54. He suffered a sudden heart attack while in flight on business. O'DOWD O’Dowd joined STV in 2007 as vice president in its construction management division, providing oversight for two projects on which the firm was involved at the former World Trade Center site: the Freedom Tower and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. He
Peter Green, a U.K.-born engineer who became one of ENR’s most prolific writers of technically detailed journalism on global construction megaprojects, died on Jan. 10 of pneumonia complications in New York City. Green, 81, had been ENR’s senior transportation editor for a decade until he retired in 1996, covering some of the world’s most complex projects and biggest disasters. GREEN ENR’s archives are filled with references to cover stories that Green reported, wrote and edited. He managed ENR’s coverage of noteworthy transportation projects, including the huge English Channel rail tunnel, Boston’s Central Artery network and reconstruction of infrastructure damaged in
GRAF Edward D. Graf , an innovator in grouting and foundation engineering and founder of a successful soil stabilization company in California, died on Dec. 16, 2009, in Honolulu of lung disease. He was 84. Graf pioneered development and application of several grouting techniques, including compaction grouting and controlled fracture grouting, and held or co-held six pressure-grouting patents. He founded in 1957 Pressure Grout Co. in South San Francisco, which has been involved in more than 1,600 grouting projects in the U.S. and globally. It was sold to an investor group several years ago. Graf was honored for his contributions
MALONEY STACY David L. Stacy , a civil engineer and co-founder of transportation contractor Stacy & Witbeck Inc., Alameda, Calif., died on Nov. 12 in San Jose, Calif. He was 77. Witbeck founded the company, now No. 212 on ENR’s list of The Top 400 Contractors, in 1981, along with partner Robert Witbeck. Major projects of the firm, which reported $351.2 million in 2008 revenue, include renovation of San Francisco’s cable cars and muncipal trolley system and modifications to California’s Calaveras Dam. Witbeck retired from the firm in 1998 and also was president of the Association of Engineering Construction Employers.